Entitlement To Retentions And How Best To Recover Outstanding Monies Owed

This month’s question is posed by a sub-contractor in Birmingham.

Question:

What is retention and how do I recover any retention owed?

Answer:

Retention is a common term used in construction and represents monies which are entitled to be collected once due.

Retention is money held as a safeguarding mechanism against, for example, defects which may develop and the contractor may fail to remedy.

Retention can be often considered one of the most contentious issues within our industry, since construction is one of the only industries that legally allows for the deduction of monies due – a somewhat unique (but not popular) situation, after all retentions are levied against work already undertaken.

At Kenzie Consulting we provide both an immediate recovery for historic and current accounts, as well as ongoing management service for your retentions if required. We can, therefore, manage all (or some) of your retentions, after the point of practical completion.

We can take care of the administration of retentions, initially this involves (if required) conducting an audit of your business in order to identify the value of outstanding retentions.

There is no fuss or action required by you as we can extract all the relevant data from files such as contracts and payment certificates in order to build up a detailed retentions picture which includes not only the level of retentions, but through credit checking, the feasibility of their recovery.

We offer a number of different personalised solutions that vary from collection based on a fixed fee arrangement, through to working on a percentage basis or of course, a no win – no fee conditional fee type arrangement.

For more information please contact one of the specialist consultants at Kenzie Consulting, or email us on retentions@kenzieconsulting .com

Do you have a contractual, technical or legal problem?

Or would you simply like to understand a particular issue better?

Would you like independent objective advice?

Therefore, if you have a question regarding any construction law, dispute resolution or quantity surveying matter then email info@modernbuilder.co.uk or joseph.bond@kenzieconsulti ng.com and we will publish a response in Modern Builder detailing our advice.

All correspondence will be treated with the utmost confidence.